Man who bit woman and tried to pervert course of justice jailed for two years

Man who bit woman and tried to pervert course of justice jailed for two years

Ismael Luna Dominguez (29), originally from Spain, assaulted the victim on two separate occasions, before trying to get his mother and others to persuade her to withdraw her complaint against him.

The defendant also sent a letter to her place of work in a further bid to get the charges dropped.

He admitted charges of grave and criminal assault, assault and attempting to pervert the justice and was sentenced to two years in prison and was recommended for deportation.

Delivering the Royal Court’s sentence yesterday, Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae said: ‘You repeatedly tried to prevent the victim from giving a truthful account and this is very serious.

‘Attempting to pressure victims not to give evidence will be dealt with severely by the courts.’

Requesting a 30-month sentence, Crown Advocate Richard Pedley, prosecuting, said the grave and criminal assault charge related to an incident on 18 August last year.

The pair had been involved in an argument when Dominguez bit a duvet cover and, in the process, bit the woman’s back.

The victim then went to work and told a colleague about the incident, who took her to the police station. Officers reported that she was in pain and upset and an ambulance was called to take her to hospital. During an examination, the woman showed police an image of an injury to her eye caused by a previous attack by Dominguez. This was the basis of the charge of common assault.

Investigations found that the eye injury had been caused by the defendant putting his face next to the victim’s face and applying pressure.

Advocate James Bell, defending, said his client knew his behaviour was unacceptable and he regretted the stress caused to the woman. He argued that the sentence requested by the Crown was too high and proposed that a community service and probation order should be used instead.

With regards to attempting to pervert the course of justice, Mr Bell said his client had made a ‘naïve attempt to bring this case to a resolution’. He added that the letter sent to the victim contained no threats towards her.

Mr Bell added: ‘He deserves another chance. He appreciates he may not have another chance after that, but at this juncture he should have a chance to return to the community and have an opportunity to improve himself.’

Jurats Gareth Hughes and Charles Blampied were sitting.

– Advertisement –
– Advertisement –